The baby has allergies

Adeleigh has a lot of ideas when it comes to her baby brother in utero, including -

He likes to jiggle.
The baby has allergies. And when his allergies make him cough, he covers his mouth with his arm. Smart boy.
He gets out of his crib and walks across his room. (His room = My uterus)
When she pokes my belly button, it makes him giggle.
She can hear him.
He wants out.

~~

I can't wait for the two of them to meet :)

Like a fishy

This week, Adeleigh started swimming lessons.
Here she is the day before her first class, 15 miles away from the swimming pool -

And here she is the day of, 15 feet away -

Her least favorite part of swim class is laying on her back, but she's getting more comfortable. My least favorite part of swim class are the last 2 minutes, when the teacher instructs us to submerge our children's heads under water. I was the only parent during the first class that didn't do as instructed. Call me ridiculous, but I feel cruel dunking my unsuspecting daughter's face in chlorine water. I don't even like dunking my own head under water. And I feel cruel enough during bath times when it gets in her eyes. I've consoled her on numerous occasions when this happens, or worse yet, when water accidentally gets up her nose. That is the equivalent to the end of the world.

Since I wasn't mentally prepared to have to purposefully do this, I told the teacher that I couldn't this time, but that I might consider it for the next class.

The next class, Phaeton joined us in the water. As the last 2 minutes approached, I took a deep breath and told Phaeton I really needed his help.
The teacher instructed us to submerge our little ones. All of the other seemingly stress-free parents joyfully dunked their children under the water once, some of them twice.
My blood pressure rose.
I told Adeleigh what we were going to do.
Then, her wonderful daddy went under water to show Adeleigh that it was okay. When he came up alive, she grew the biggest grin and giggled. Then we told her that next she was going to do it with Daddy. She took a deep breath with Phaeton and I dipped her under water and quickly pulled her up.
She was a little shocked, but still smiling. She wiped her eyes and we attempted it again....
She was a little shocked, and came up coughing. She clutched onto me, whining about the water in her eyes and I immediately started apologizing and heading toward the towels.
Phaeton reassured the both of us that it was okay and that I didn't need to apologize to her for what just happened. So although it's still my least favorite part of class, I suppose I am getting a little more comfortable. And so it seems that we are all learning a thing or two with these parent/tot swim lessons.
He was right. She was fine. And once her eyes were clear again, she felt very proud of herself for going under the water - twice. And I felt better for having let my guard down enough for these few moments and allowing her to do so.

So, we celebrated with our sunglasses on and enjoyed vanilla lavender milkshakes in Old Town -

Not all animals need heads

Recently, Adeleigh was given some hand-me-down Barbie dolls. We found them while unpacking the garage and decided to pull them out for play. They lasted about 5 minutes in their original condition until Adeleigh decided they needed something - - -

*Warning*
Image may not be suitable for girls who love their Barbie dolls completely intact -







Not only did she promptly rip both of their heads off, but she also calls them her "animals". And she still plays with them.




Some may find this disturbing.
But, Phaeton and I think we may have a budding feminist who doesn't appreciate inhuman representations of women. And now without their heads, their dimensions of height to body mass index are slightly more accurate.

The pink ones are for her

Today -

She spent the day in Grandma and Grandpa's backyard playing in the sun, sprinklers and slip 'n' slide with her cousin, Ashton.
We got a little sunburnt. Oops.
We celebrated her Aunt Amy's Birthday and ate way too many brownies.
(We might still be eating brownies.)
She napped for a whopping 30 minutes.
We questioned her ability to stay awake throughout dinner.

Within minutes, we watched her go from half-asleep to running around the restaurant in circles.

We drove home with all the windows down. She loves that.
We took a stroll around our block and watched 3 pre-fireworks shows put on by some of our new neighbors.
Then, she had us pretend we were walking through the jungle, looking for monkeys in the trees.
We questioned her ability to stay awake for the big show at the lake.
So, we decided to stay home and set up blankets by our upstairs windows.
We had an [almost] perfect view of the entire Lake Loveland fireworks show from our bedroom.
She decided that all of the pink fireworks and smiley face fireworks were made especially for her.
We decided that she was right :)
~

We only wish this was the view from our bedroom window...

And we only wish that we took this photo -
(Photo credit: Loveland Reporter-Herald July 4, 2013)

Happy 4th of July!!!

Pregnancy Brain - Incident 35

It happened again. My poor husband.

We have had my 24 week appointment and glucose test scheduled for the last 8 weeks. I have been preparing for this moment. I made arrangements to get off work early and have coverage in my department. I had consciously been reminding myself that today, of all days this pregnancy, is the day when I can't just munch on a bag of chocolate chips throughout the day. I wouldn't want to skew any results or anything...I had also regularly been reminding Phaeton of my appointment on Tuesday the 18th, in case he wanted to come.

Phaeton - "Oh yeah. Thanks for reminding me. I am going to make arrangements so that I can go with."
Me - "If it's too much trouble, you don't have to go to this one. I'm just going to drink a big glass of orange sugar water and have my blood drawn after meeting with the midwife. I'll be fine."
Phaeton - "No honey. You know I always want to come to your appointments. Plus, I want to hear his heartbeat again. I don't want to miss it. I'll make it work."

So he did.
And the way he had to work it out was to go in this morning at 7am, leave for our appointment at 2pm and go back into work from 6 to at least 10pm to process his inventory. Not an easy day he arranged to attend my appointment.

Then I went and screwed it all up.

My coworker brought in my favorite Starbucks drink, which happens to contain a large amount of sugar. And without thinking, I gulped it down, whipped cream and all. It was 3 hours until my appointment. With my coworker sitting across the desk from me, I stared at my empty cup and said, "Thanks for the drink. But &%$#. I just realized I have my glucose test in 3 hours. I can't believe I forgot. Think it'll be okay?"
She laughed and said, "No way. Look at all that sugar you just drank. You should probably call your midwife."
I did. My midwife said, "No way. We'll have to cancel your appointment. We'll get you in this Thursday instead."
I couldn't help but whisper a few expletives at myself. Now it was time to break the news to my loving husband.
...[crickets]...
He didn't get mad. At all. And he told me that he would still be there on Thursday. And every single coffee shop in town knows not to make my drink that day.

I love my husband.

Pregnancy Brain - Incident 29

It was midnight, in our second week of living in our new home. We were still living out of boxes and I was feeling out of sorts, overwhelmed with how much we still had to unpack. We had just laid down for bed and Phaeton was starting to snore. I had just realized something and felt the urge to tell him immediately -
"Hey, Honey. I just realized that all of our closing papers are with the ultrasound photos, ultrasound DVD, camera and external hard drive. I can't remember where all of that is. We need to find it."
Phaeton - "Seriously? You woke me up to tell me that? Do we need to find it right now?"
Me - "Well, no. But tomorrow probably."
Phaeton jumped out of bed - "I'll go do it right now."
Me - "Seriously? You're amazing."
Phaeton - "No, I'm not seriously going to do it right now. I'm getting my ear plugs. Good night!"

Every day for the last week, I've been looking throughout the garage and reminding Phaeton that I still haven't found those VIP items, insinuating that I would like for us - er, him - to work tirelessly until they are found. Every day, he's been looking through the garage, moving all of our unpacked boxes around, unable to find them. Today, we did quite a bit of work in the garage together and they were still nowhere to be found. He even spent extra time in the evening, opening up every single box and scouring inside to see if he could find anything I had been missing.

He broke the news to me -
"Hey, Honey. I just looked through every single box and none of that stuff is out there. We just might have to consider it all a loss and start over. Maybe the midwives will have a copy of the photos and DVD we could get this week."
I wanted to cry. "You just looked through every single box out there?"
Phaeton - "Yes. And all throughout our cars. I'm sorry, Honey. I couldn't find any of it."
Me - "Okay. Thanks for looking."

I started to mourn the lost items, especially the ultrasound photos of our new baby, feeling like I barely had any time to look through them. To get my mind off of it, I decided to wind down and clean up Adeleigh's toys in the living room. I opened up the doors to the entertainment center to put the toys away. There, in a cabinet that hadn't been touched in two weeks, were all of the things I'd been missing. All of it.
I pulled it all out, with the biggest smile on my face and started admiring the ultrasound photos. Phaeton walked in the room and just stared at me
.....[crickets]......
I looked up at him.
Phaeton - "Seriously? You found it all just now? Where was it?"
I was embarrassed to tell him.
Me - "Ummmm. It was right here. Inside this cabinet. I must have put it here to keep it safe the day we moved in." I laughed. "Oops."
Phaeton - [silence]
....[crickets]......
Me - "I'm sorry, Honey. Sorry for reminding you everyday for the last two weeks. And sorry that you looked tirelessly through all of those boxes for me tonight. What can I say? Pregnancy-brain.....tee hee hee....Love you."
Phaeton laughed. "You reminded me more than once everyday for the last two weeks. Just wanted to remind you. Love you too."

He's a good guy.

Toddler talk

Conversation overheard this morning at Adeleigh's daycare between Adeleigh and her little friend, Makena:

Adeleigh - "Hi Makena. This is my Mommy, Heather." (She introduces me to her friends every day.)
Makena - "That's cool, Adeleigh."
Adeleigh - "Kena, see my ponies? You like them?" (Ponies = ponytails)
Makena - "That's cool, Adeleigh. I don't have ponies. See my bun?"
Adeleigh - "Aww cute. See my dress? That's cool?"
Makena - "Cool, Adeleigh. See my shirt?"
Adeleigh - "I like your shirt, Kena."
Makena - "Thanks, Adeleigh. See my shorts?"
Adeleigh - "Cool shorts, Kena. Mommy did my ponies today. This is my Mommy."
Makena - "Cool, Adeleigh. I like your ponies.,,,"
.....
I love having a toddler. Conversations tend to be so much less complicated with her around.

:)

A $5 ice cream cone

This week -

Adeleigh taught me that the baby cows we see on our way to daycare every morning "Aren't cows, Momma. They are goats."

I discovered that Fruity Pebbles are gluten free. And they are a hit with the whole family.

After weeks of demanding that my coworkers please tell me when I start to waddle, it became official.

I realized that I had been taking for granted the lack of spiders that live in a 3rd story condo.

I started price-comparing local pest removal companies. Because what does a waddling pregnant arachnophobe do when she kills the biggest, hairiest spider she's ever seen in her new home??? She tries to justify spending hundreds of dollars to prevent it from ever happening again. (And she refuses to unpack another box until she's reassured that it is bug-free.)

I am still able to paint my toenails.

I learned that pregnant women aren't meant to fall asleep in toddler beds.

We discovered that spending $5 for an ice cream cone is totally worth it. Even if only half of it actually makes it into a mouth.

Perks of not living in a 1-bedroom condo (Day 1)

Being able to let the dog out without putting on our shoes.

Not watching the TV above the volume level of Mute after 9pm.

Not sharing our bedroom with the garbage disposal.

And the real perk of the evening - 

Watching my husband create makeshift shower curtain rings out of old boxer shorts because the other rings are packed in a box somewhere, and hearing him justify it by saying he's creating inspiration for Pinterest.

.....

They did turn out pretty cool :)

Love at first sight

Seeing Baby on the ultrasound screen made it all the more real. Our ultrasound tech asked us before the first splat of blue jelly, "Are you wanting to know the sex of your baby?"

"YES!" We both yelled...kindly.

"Well, okay! Let's get this started then." And she didn't waste any time. We took one quick look at the head and profile, then the arms and legs, then - 

"Do you see that in between the legs? It's a BOY!"

We both started giggling and crying. Our tech handed us tissues and said, "I cried too when I found out I was having a boy." We giggled some more.

If you had asked me before today what I wanted, my answer was something like this - "Well, of course I would be happy with either....But, secretly I want another girl....But, I would love a boy too....But, Adeleigh is convinced she's going to have a baby sister...."

And to be honest, [secretly] I was kind of nervous about having a boy because I feel like I have the whole raising a girl thing down. I've clearly had more experience with a girl baby. I can relate a little bit more to the girl drama because it is all-too-familiar, and very much surrounding me (even at the present moment). I have felt nervous that I wouldn't really know much about having a boy. 

Would we need to start playing basketball? Or buy some baseball bats to keep around the house? Do I need to learn to love spiders and start collecting them in mason jars? 

How does an arachnophobe learn how to love bugs? And how am I going to tell my little girl, who is wholeheartedly convinced she's going to have a baby sister, that she's not?

I quickly realized how much I was over-thinking everything, because once we learned that our little kicker is a boy, all of that hesitation and nervousness went away. And I couldn't help but start to cry, thinking about how new and different and exciting all of this is.

___

So, this afternoon when we went to pick Adeleigh up from daycare, we couldn't wait to tell her the exciting news. 

"Adeleigh, we have a surprise for you."

"A surprise? What?"

"Mommy has a baby boy in her belly! You're going to have a baby brother!"

"A baby brother? In your belly?" Her face lit up. "....Can I have my surprise now, please?"

We laughed. "That is the surprise, Sweetie! But, after dinner, we're going to celebrate and get a treat."

We went to Coopersmith's for dinner and Adeleigh couldn't wait to share her surprise with the entire west-facing patio. One by one, she walked up to each table and said, with the biggest smile on her face, "I have a baby brother. It's in my mommy's belly. See?" And she'd run back over to our table, pat my belly and say, "See? Right here." I got teary-eyed again, thinking about how amazing it is to see the joy and love that our little girl already shares for our little boy. And how proud of him she already is. 

She's going to be such a good big sister.

And we are already so in love with him.